Witches

I have a big project on witches and the main question is:
Why were witches so harshly persecuted?
I also need to know about the black arts, and witchcraft, and trials.
Anything at all!
Please Please Please help!
Thanks!
~Emily~

I have a big project on witches and the main question is:Why were witches so harshly persecuted?

Welcome to the Forum.

As usual, I suggest you do a forum search, because there is lots on here about witches. This thread is more aimed at GCSE pupils, but it might help with your main question.

Here are a few thoughts which might be of help. Which religious organisation really didn't like witches? Did people really understand what caused things like illness and bad harvests to happen in the 16th-17th centuries? How do people often feel if they are faced with something they don't understand? What sort of people were oftne accused of being witches? Were they usually able to defend themselves?

Also we need to answer the question: Why was it quite easy to accuse old women of being witches?

Have a think about: What sort of people tended to live on their own? Would they have anyone around to help them if they got into trouble? Witches were supposed to have 'familiars'. Which type of animal often supposed to be a familiar might have been owned by an elderly widow? Who probably had the greatest knowledge and experience about using herbs as medicine in a village?

Thanks!At the moment I am focusing on 'The black art'Do you have any info on this?~Emily~

Well, the short anwer is no. However, I think that it means what is also called 'Black Magic'. In other words, 'bad' magic designed to cause harm (referred to as the 'dark arts' in Harry Potter). So, hopefully the links you can follow up from your forum search will give you some ideas about the sort of magic the witches used. Be careful about searching on the internet because there is a lot of strange stuff about 'black arts'.